Grad student relives wild youth in new book

University of New Hampshire graduate student Nathan Graziano brings out the humanity and truth in the struggle to grow up and find one's place in the world in his new book, After the Honeymoon.

The collection of poetry, published by Sunnyoutside Press, was released on Sept. 17 and has received rave reviews, both from fellow authors and from literary journals such as decomP, Rattle and Night Train.

A native of Rhode Island and a graduate of Plymouth State College, Graziano didn't take up writing seriously until he returned to New England after teaching in Las Vegas for a year. He admits that as a teenager his goal was to either direct porno films or drive a Zamboni.

Like many young writers with a penchant for living life on the edge, Graziano was heavily influenced by the works of Jack Kerouac and the beat generation. His first book, published in 2002 by the now-defunct Green Bean Press, was a collection of short stories entitled Frostbite.

"I tried to live like Sal Paradise," said Graziano. "The Kerouac thing became a Bukowski-thing, and that's when I started writing these silly, thinly-veiled autobiographical stories about boozing and whoring and scatological topics. But eventually, I started to find my own voice – a process I'm still working on."

Graziano's new book, After the Honeymoon, is his third paperback collection of poetry. Taking an unapologetic and poignant look at subjects like addiction, parenthood and the struggle of getting older in a culture that places so much value on youth, Graziano delivers his prose with humor, sensitivity, and most of all, honesty.

"There's a level of immediate gratification, but also layers to peel away as you revisit the pieces, which ultimately proves the most gratifying," said David McNamara of Sunnyoutside, an independent publishing house based in Buffalo, N.Y.  "He has always maintained a surface accessibility, but as he's matured as a writer. His metaphors and sense of theme and language have expanded immensely."

Graziano now lives in Manchester with his wife and two children and for the past decade has been teaching English at Pembroke Academy. His last book, Teaching Metaphors, a collection of poems inspired by his experiences and observations while teaching, was named Best Local Collection of Poetry for 2007 by The Hippo Press.

"Teaching writing forces you to think critically and analytically about the writing itself as you try to push your students to discover these things on their own," said Graziano. "I don't think you can teach writing; you can just nudge students in certain directions that will help them improve their work. Alex Parsons [a member of the UNH English faculty] once told me that the main job of a writing teacher is be a cheerleader for the writer. I agree with him."

While teaching at Pembroke, Graziano began taking graduate classes at UNH and will receive his MFA in fiction writing in December.

"I'm amazed the guy can do both poetry and fiction with such force. And he's a pleasure to hang with and work with," said Tom Payne, a professor of English at UNH who has been advising Graziano on his first novel, which will complete his MFA work at UNH. "Real writers can sit for hours going over words the way a musician gets into notes and chords. Nate's like that: he's obsessed with word love. And storytelling love. He's the real thing."

Graziano is among several UNH English graduate students to publish books recently, including Tim Horvath's novella Circulation and Wee Hour Martyrdom by Jason Tandon.
In addition to his poetry and short fiction books, Graziano has also published a variety of chapbooks and broadsides, as well as selections of poetry and fiction in journals such as Rattle, Night Train, Nerve Cowboy and Controlled Burn. He will be embarking on a reading tour throughout the northeast over the next month, the dates of which, along with news and other information, can be found on his website, http://www.nathangraziano.com/.